Do you catch the train to work and have you ever faced a delay with your journey? Remember last Christmas Last Christmas when there was travel chaos for tens of thousands of passengers after engineering work meant King’s Cross and Paddington stations overran? And what does chaos and delay mean? Stress!
Just as train companies are now looking into managing their times, so many of us know we should manage our time more effectively; but it can be difficult to pinpoint the mistakes we are making and to know how to improve.
With this in mind, here are five of the most common time management mistakes and tips how to improve them:-
1. No personal goals
Do you know where you’d like to be in six months? What about this time next year, or even five years from now? If not, it’s time to set some personal goals!
Personal goal setting is essential to managing your time well, because goals will give you a destination to work towards. When you know where you want to go, you can manage your priorities, time and resources to get there. Goals also help you decide what’s worth spending your time on, and what just a distraction.
Set yourself 3-5 personal goals now and make sure they meet the SMART checklist below:-
Specific – what exactly to you want to achieve?
Measurable – how will you know you’re making progress?
Achievable – is the goal of motivating and stretching, yet within reach?
Relevant – is this goal important in moving you towards achieving what you want?
Timescales – when will you achieve this goal (or the key steps within it)?
2. No priorities
Sometimes, it’s hard to know how to prioritise, especially when you are facing a flood of seemingly urgent tasks. However, it’s essential to learn how to step back from the ‘busy-ness’ and prioritise tasks effectively if you want to manage your time better.
Try as you might, you simply cannot do everything, so don’t even try!
The key thing to realise here is that every task in your in tray is not equal in priority.
To prioritise your tasks, try this:-
– LIST the key tasks to be done. Try to keep your list to a dozen tasks, if possible.
– Mark the IMPORTANCE of each task. Consider the value of each completed task.
Mark each task with H for high, M for medium and L for low – use a red pen.
Mark the effort required for each task. Consider the time needed for each task. Mark each task with S for short, M for medium or L for long. Use a blue pen to do this.
Compare all tasks. Highlight the most important and urgent tasks that require the least amount of effort.
Decide. Group the tasks with the highest importance and urgency and least amount of effort. Identify which ones need to be done first based on upcoming deadlines. Takes with low importance and urgency can be deferred.
3. Thriving on busy
Some people get a rush from being busy. The narrowly-met deadlines, the endless emails, the piles of files needing attention on the desk, the frantic race to the meeting, what an adrenalin rush!
The problem is that ‘addiction to busyness’ rarely means you’re effective, and can lead to stress.
Do not confuse being busy with being productive – sometimes doing nothing is better than being business doing nothing!
Instead, try to slow down, focus on what is most important, prioritise and manage your time better.
4. No breaks
It’s nice to think that you can work for 8-10 hours straight, especially when you’re working to a deadline. But it’s impossible for anyone to focus and produce really high-quality work without giving your brain some time to rest and recharge.
So don’t dismiss regular, short breaks as ‘wasting time.’ They provide valuable down-time, which will enable you to rebalance yourself, think more creatively and work more effectively.
If it’s hard for you to drag yourself away from that task, then schedule short breaks for yourself or set an alarm as a reminder. Go for a quick walk, grab a cup of coffee or just stop and sit and reflect at your desk. Try to take a five minute break every hour or two. And make sure you give yourself time for lunch – you won’t produce top quality work when you’re hungry.
5. Poor scheduling
Are you a morning person? Or do you find your energy and ability to focus picking up in the evening?
All of us have different body clock rhythms – the different times of day when we feel at our most productive and energetic.
You can make the most of your time by scheduling to complete your high value and most important work during your peak time, and low-energy work (like returning phone calls and checking email) during your ‘down’ time periods.
Want to read the rest of the Top Tips for Time Management Mistakes and Solutions?
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